Поучение на Пятидесятницу. Святого Кирилла, епископа Туровского

God, always desiring our salvation, wanted, in His mercy, to renew our nature, which had become dilapidated from sin, and therefore He actually took on our body, wanting to direct our feet to the true path. For God could not bear to see that the one whom He created in His image and placed in paradise as the ruler of all creation was seduced by the envious devil and underwent corruption. And so, the Lord voluntarily suffered for us, putting to death our sins, rose from the dead, ascended again into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and on this fiftieth day He sent down the Holy Spirit, distributing tongues of fire to His disciples, as He promised them after His resurrection, saying: I will ascend to My Father and your Father (John 20:17). You don’t have it, but I’m coming. If I do not go, I, the Paraclete, that is, the Comforter, will not come to you: if I do go (John 16:7), I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, and the Spirit of truth will be in you (John 14:16–17). And He will teach you everything, and He will remember everything that was told to you. (John 14:26). And he lifted up his hands, the Lord blessed them (the apostles) (Luke 24:50), and said: Go, sit together in Jerusalem, until you are endowed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49). And having said this, the Lord ascended into heaven before them. Now the apostles received the power of the Holy Spirit and began to speak in all languages, as the Spirit gave them to speak (Acts 2:4) and, setting out, they went through the whole world like lightning (Ezek. 21:16), teaching and instructing everyone to know God, speaking to everyone in his own language. Such is the mercy of God towards us and the honor of this day, which reveals to us that God does not want the death of sinners, but their conversion and repentance, for He Himself said: the sick do not require the health of a doctor, but the sick. The righteous did not come to call, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32). Therefore, we, having such a merciful Master, will not indulge in laziness, but, having rejected from ourselves all malice, envy, slander, cheating and all sorts of inappropriate deeds, we will come with a clear conscience to God’s church and, standing in it with fear, we will ask the Lord for remission of sins and eternal life, so that we may be worthy to approach the most pure mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, for those who are worthy He makes the partakers partakers of the kingdom of heaven; and those who accept the mysteries without purifying themselves are subject to eternal fire. The Lord our God Himself said: if you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you will have eternal life (John 6:54), and again: if you ask again in prayer as a believer, you will receive (Matthew 21:22). Hearing all this, brothers, let us perk up, and let us not only call ourselves Christians in words, but let us try to acquire good deeds: humility, love for everyone, meekness, fasting, which cleanses the soul and body, compares us with angels and elevates us to heaven. And do alms continually, for it washes away all our sins and opens the gates of heaven and exchanges the wrath of God for meekness and mercy; alms easily lift to heaven and boldly place at the throne of God. For it is said: mercy is praised in judgment; and one more thing: blessings of mercy, for there will be mercy (Matthew 5:7); and also: judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy (James 2:13). So, let us try to do deeds pleasing to God, for for such deeds we will be called sons of God and, having lived this life virtuously, we will be worthy of future blessings, with all who have pleased God from the beginning in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen 128. Creations of St. Kirill, bishop. Turovsky. Ed. Rev. Evgenia, bishop. Minsky. Kyiv. 1880, pp. 289–291; Wed Monuments of ancient Russian church teacher literature, ed. magazine, "The Wanderer", 1894, vol. I, pp. 173–175. This is the word inscribed with the name of St. Kirill, belongs to the category of those whose authenticity is subject to doubt You might be interested in: